Stefan Milenkovich and Julya Fedoseeva

Join us for a live recital featuring Serbian born violinist Stefan Milenkovich and pianist Julya Fedoseeva with a program of Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, Wieniawsky, and Tchaikovsky.

Serbia’s Artist of the Century, Most Humane Person, and Brand Personality of the Year, violinist Stefan Milenkovich enjoys a prolific career as an internationally sought-after soloist and recitalist, with an extraordinary productive longevity, professionalism and creativity.

Established as one of the foremost violinists of his generation, Milenkovich appeared on multiple occasions in some of the world’s most celebrated venues such as Carnegie Hall, New York City (USA), Kennedy Center, Washington (USA), Cadogan Hall, London (UK), Suntory Hall, Tokyo (Japan), as well as Italy’s theatres La Fenice, Venice, San Carlo, Naples, and Petruzzelli, Bari. His numerous appearances with orchestra include Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Radio-France, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Mexico State Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Estado de Sao Paolo, and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphonies, and has performed under the baton of such conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel, Vladimir Fedoseyev, and Daniel Oren.

Milenkovich started his career at a very young age. He performed for U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a Christmas concert in Washington, DC, at age 10. The following year, he played for Mikhail Gorbachev in Belgrade, Serbia. At age 14, he played for Pope John Paul II and at age 16, Milenkovich gave his 1000th concert in Monterrey, Mexico.By age 17, he was the winner of The Young Concert Artists International Competition (USA), as well as a prizewinner in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (USA), the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium), Hannover Violin Competition (Germany), Tibor Varga Competition (Switzerland), Rodolfo Lipizer Competition (Italy), Paganini Competition (Italy), Ludwig Spohr Competition (Germany), and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (England).

Deeply committed to international humanitarian causes, in 2002 Milenkovich received the Lifting Up the World With Oneness Heart award for his humanitarian activities, handed to him personally by the guru Sri Chinmoy. He also participated in a number of gala concerts under the auspices of UNESCO in Paris with such artists as Placido Domingo, Lorin Maazel, Alexis Weissenberg, and Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and was active as the First Child Ambassador during the Balkan wars in early 90’.

As a musician of broad stylistic interests, Milenkovich performed with five-time Grammy Nominee rock band Gorillaz in one of the world’s most renowned venues – Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City. The critically acclaimed performance was featured live on MTV. Recent collaborations include performances with Grammy Award Nominee lutist Edin Karamazov, as well as a musical partnership with guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and his trio, where Milenkovich explored the realm of improvisation and acoustic-electric violin.

Milenkovich’s discography includes four commercial releases of the Italian label Dynamic, featuring J. S. Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, Complete Music for Solo Violin – Nicolo Paganini 24 Capricci, N. Paganini Recital, and N. Paganini In cuor piu non mi sento. He also released numerous recordings for the Yugoslavian label, PGP. Milenkovich’s recent CD release includes a First Recording disc with the Manchester Music Festival of Vittorio Giannini’s Piano Trio and Piano Quintet.

Firmly dedicated to pedagogical work, Milenkovich taught in collaboration with Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School in New York City, NY, and Perlman Music Program, before accepting his current position as an Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Milenkovich is still the youngest graduate of the Music Academy in Belgrade, Serbia, finishing his Masters’ studies at 19 years of age, and has completed the Professional Studies program at the Juilliard School in New York City, NY under tutelage of Mrs. Dorothy DeLay.

Known for her passionate and musical interpretations and impressive technical facility, the Russian pianist Yulia Fedoseeva enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.

To date, she has given hundreds of performances throughout Russia, Holland, Portugal, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and in the United States. Yulia has performed in such prestigious venues in Russia as St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, the State Capella, and the Glazunov Hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire and has been a concerto soloist with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony and St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestras.

Yulia has appeared at international festivals such as “Chamber Music connects the World” (Kronberg, Germany), Zenith Chamber Music Festival (Hague, Holland), “Sound Ways” (St. Petersburg, Russia), and collaborated with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Richard Harwood, Stefan Milenkovich, Anima Quartet, and the members of the Jupiter Quartet among others. In 2011 she was selected to be an Official Staff Pianist for the 14th International Tchaikovsky competition.

In 2009 Yulia’s performances were seen and heard in Phil Grabsky’s documentary “In Search of Beethoven,” which received its premiere at the Barbican Theatre, London, and was broadcast internationally on TV stations and shown in movie theaters worldwide.

Throughout her career, Yulia has won and been the recipient of many awards, including in 1997 a Special Prize at the International Piano Competition in Jurmala, Latvia, in 2000 Grand Prix and First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition “Coast of Hope” in Dobrich, Bulgaria, in 2004 First Prize at the Maria Yudina Piano Duo Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2009 second prize at the A.G. Bakhchiev National Piano Duo Competition in Vologda, Russia.

In addition to her performing career, Yulia is a devoted teacher and has been on faculty at the St. Petersburg State Conservatoire and at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music Lyceum for Highly Gifted Children. Many of her students have won top prizes at national and international chamber music competitions in Russia and abroad, including first prize at the Charles Hennen International Competition in Holland, and at the International Youth Chamber Music Festival-Competitions “In Corpore” in Estonia.

Meet the Host

Kerry is a regular host of live concert broadcasts including Live from WFMT, concerts from the Ravinia Festival, and WFMT’s premiere visiting artist series, Impromptu. Kerry hosts many WFMT Radio Network broadcasts from such locations as the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Salzburg Festival. A native Chicagoan, Kerry grew up with WFMT. His love of music and radio played an important part in his life at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin, where he eventually became program director of Wisconsin Public Radio. He’s always been a strong advocate of live music broadcasts, and cherishes having interviewed many of the performers he admires including Itzhak Perlman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Renée Fleming, John Adams, Leif Ove Andsnes – even the award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns.